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Eugène François Vidocq

“The book the reader has now before his eyes – from one end to the other; in its whole and in its details, whatever the omissions, the exceptions, or the faults – is the march from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from the false to the true, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from brutality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from nothingness to God. Starting point: matter; goal: the soul. Hydra at the beginning, angel at the end.”
-Les Misérables

No list of the greatest novels ever written would be complete without Pride and Prejudice, if not all of Jane Austen’s novels. However, one other novel that often joins Jane at the top of such lists, is Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Set in France during the tumultuous years 1813-1840, the novel examines the complex themes of sin, grace and redemption.

It will, no doubt, come as a surprise to many that the two main characters of this novel, Jean Valjean (a convicted thief) and Inspector Javert (the officer dedicated to making him pay for his crimes) were inspired by the same person. Eugène François Vidocq, a direct contemporary of Jane Austen, was an ex-convict who became a successful businessman widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy. In 1828, Vidocq, already pardoned, saved one of the workers in his paper factory by lifting a heavy cart on his shoulders as Valjean does in the novel. Vidcoq, a personal friend of Victor Hugo, eventually became the head of the Sûreté Nationale, the first recorded private detective, and possibly even the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes.

Eugène François Vidocq ( July 24, 1775 – May 11, 1857) was a French criminal and criminalist whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac. A former crook who subsequently became the founder and first director of the crime-detection Sûreté Nationale as well as the head of the first known private detective agency, Vidocq is considered to be the father of modern criminology and of the French police department.He is also regarded as the first private detective.Continue reading Eugène François Vidocq: Misérables Inspiration